“Who was he dealing with in Tokyo?”
Lenglases looked at Marcone, who frowned. “My client can’t divulge the name of his clients as your immunity doesn’t extend to them.”
“We have no jurisdiction in Tokyo.”
“Please, Detective Lang, don’t insult my intelligence. Do you have more questions for my client?”
Dave cleared his throat and handed me a note. I read it quickly and nodded. “We were told earlier Kyle was no longer in the drug business. He’d started working for a large corporation. Who was he working for?”
“I don’t know who, but I can tell you what.”
I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms. “I’m certain you’ve heard rumors.”
Marcone placed his hand on Julio’s arm. “Rumors are not fact, Detective Lang, and my client will not be offering any information which can’t be backed up by proof. We’re not here to offer speculation.”
“All right. What business was Kyle in?”
“Kidnapping and slave trade, loan sharks, and black-market baby sales.” The contempt in Lenglases voice turned my stomach sour. Even some of the most hardened drug lords wouldn’t touch a child.
“Where’s your proof of that, Mr. Lenglases?”
“One of my lieutenants lived with a girl who was kidnapped. She can tell you about your brother.” He spat the last words out. “He was a man with no honor.”
My hands clenched, and I fought the urge to climb over the table and claw out his eyes. The sickening truth was I believed him. “We need to talk to this girl. Does she have a name?”
Lenglases laughed. “She has many. The last I heard, she was going by Crimson Rose.”
The silence in the room was corporeal, and a million questions rolled through my mind. I passed a business card to Marcone. “I’ll expect those lists by tomorrow, and if your client wants his warehouses safe, he’ll find out who killed Officer Moore and my brother.”
“Any further questions, Detective?” Marcone picked up his briefcase and placed my card inside. “If not, I’d like to see the judge about bail for my client.”
I shook my head, numbness setting in, as I listened to Dave talk to the officer outside the door and arrange for Lenglases to be taken to booking. I heard the door close, and the chair beside me squeaked and groaned as Dave sat next to me.
“You okay, kid?”
“I thought I knew Kyle and what he was capable of. How could he do those things?”
“I don’t think he did.”
I picked up the files. “You heard Lenglases. He was telling the truth. Even that bastard isn’t low enough to kidnap babies.”
Dave placed a hand over mine. “He was telling the truth he knew. Kyle was living with Crimson Rose. Do you think she would have allowed that if he’d been responsible for her kidnapping?”
“Maybe. She could have been scared of him. He could have killed her because she was going to rat him out.”
“You’re gonna make me have to pray again if you keep this up.” Dave let go of my hand. “The same people who killed Kyle killed Rose. We need to go see the ME.”
“Why?”
“Because we overlooked the hooker.” Dave’s voice rose, an indication he was pissed at himself. “I didn’t think she was important because she was a hooker. If we dig into her past, we might find more of the answers we’re looking for.”
Dave was right. I’d overlooked Crimson without giving her murder a second thought. Regardless of her profession, she deserved the same justice Kyle did. “Let’s start Stevens digging into her past while we go visit the ME.”
“Think we could grab a burger on the way?” Dave held my chair then opened the door for me.
“How about a bucket of chicken?”
“Now you’re talking.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
“Time of death isn’t set in stone, but from the condition of the body, I’m placing her death at least twenty-four hours before Kyle’s.” Myriah Burns turned from the copier and walked to her desk. “Her real name was Pamela Shell from Minnesota. I ran her prints though the system. She was wanted for grand theft auto. I planned on calling you in the morning to let you know this was ready. You saved us both a trip.”
“Thanks, Myriah.” Dave took the sheet, folded it, and placed it in his jacket pocket. “Send it through normal channels, like always.”
“No problem. I’m sorry about your brother, Kacy.”
“Thank you, Myriah. Could you tell if Crimson, or Pamela, had ever given birth?”
“Oddly enough, yes, she had. Do you think that may have something to do with why she was killed?”
“Any idea how long ago?” Dave was staring at me strangely. I knew what he was thinking. Crimson wasn’t the mother of Kyle’s child, and she wasn’t his girlfriend. I had a gut feeling she was his informant.
“From the scar tissue, I would say in the last four to five years.” Myriah closed her file again. “I’ve made inquiries into family, but no one has come forward. I’ll have to release her body to the city.”
“Can you hold off releasing the body for a few more days?”
“All right. I’ll wait for a call from you.”
“We’ll talk soon.” I led the way back to the car. It felt good to be behind the wheel again and back in control. “Why do you think Park assigned Stevens to us? My arm is still sore, but I’m perfectly capable of driving.”
“Only two reasons I can think of. Protection or stool pigeon.”
“I think the word today is ‘mole.’ No one has used ‘stool pigeon’ since I wore diapers.” I opened Dave’s door for him. “And don’t say anything. Women can open doors for men too.”
My phone buzzed again. I ignored it and climbed behind the wheel. “Let’s assume Stevens is a mole, keeping an eye on us and informing Park. What would be the reason? Or the benefit?”
“Could be somebody on that list Kyle stole Park wants to protect. You ever gonna answer your phone?”
I pulled the phone from my pocket and glanced at the missed calls. “Five from Kurt, two from Stevens, and one from Charles Wilson. We should probably stop by and see them.” I hit redial on Wilson’s call. “Hey, Charles, it’s Kacy. Dave and I were thinking about stopping by tonight, if that’s okay?” I gave Dave a thumbs-up. “We’d love to. See you in about an hour.”
“What’d he say?” Dave dug through the bucket of chicken.
“He said not to eat too much; we’re invited to dinner. Let’s run by the house and pick up the sweeper.” It was six fifteen. I could make it to the house by six thirty and, if we were lucky, to the Wilsons’ by seven. “Getting back to Stevens, Park doesn’t know about the list. We haven’t told him yet.”
“If there’s somebody on it he wants to protect, he knows.”
High-profile cases were the most dangerous for the detectives working them. People in positions of power could get away with murder. “Then who do we trust?”
Dave bit into the chicken leg and mouthed around it. “In cases like this, you don’t trust nobody.”
“What do we do about Stevens?”
“Set him up. If it takes, we know he’s a pigeon. If it doesn’t, then we’re good. You put him on Crimson’s case. Let’s see what he comes up with. He brings it to us, then he’s good. If he doesn’t bring us anything or takes it to Park first, we’ll ditch him.”
My mind was reeling with ideas. I hated a snitch, and I liked Stevens. I hoped we were wrong. “I’ll drop something on him tomorrow that the commander will have to call me in on.”
My timeline was a little off, and it was closer to seven thirty by the time we finally arrived at the Wilsons’. Dave had written out a note explaining our need to sweep the house before we talked. He passed it to Charles as we entered.
“No need to do that, Detective Capello. I run a sweep twice a day, and this little jewel tells me if there’s anyone in the neighborhood with spy equipment.” He held out a key chain with a tiny black box attached. “One of
Simon’s first inventions. He was brilliant before the drugs set in.”
“You should market that thing.” Dave said, clearly impressed.
“I thought about it, but it was Simon’s, and he felt the technology in the wrong hands would have the reverse effect of what he’d developed it for. His explanation was scientists and inventors had a responsibility to protect the world from itself, not pocket money. By the way, you were right. Our garage was broken into Saturday night. I gave them enough time to know there was nothing there then hit the alarms.” Charles shrugged. “Melanie is finishing some work on the computer. She’s waiting for us in the kitchen.”
Guilt washed over me again as we followed Charles to the kitchen. Simon was brilliant, and he’d had the right moral code. If Kyle hadn’t exposed him to drugs, he might have changed the world.
Melanie glanced up from the computer screen and smiled. “We have a few things to show you, then we’ll sit down to dinner.”
The counter was covered with graphs and lists. “What is all this?”
“Melanie took the articles of the missing children and created databases. Then she researched all the available information online and separated them into those suspected of being kidnapped by a parent or family member and those suspected of being kidnapped by strangers.” Charles tapped a stack of papers. “We crossed off the ones found.” He picked up a list. “This is the list of possible stranger abductions of children who were never recovered.”
The fact they’d put this together in a few days was mind-boggling. “This is amazing.”
“I watched a lot of detective shows with Simon when he was small. We would make a list of clues, and we always figured out the killer before they did.” Melanie’s voice was soft, tinged with love and pain. “I found a connection with the hospitals where the children were taken.” She passed me another list of corporate names of temp employment agencies. “If you trace the corporations back, they all have one familial owner or incorporator, Jonathan Drysdon.”
Melanie closed the computer and stood. “That’s as far as I’ve been able to go. All the addresses for Mr. Drysdon appear fake, as does his name.”
I was listening as my eyes scanned the list of children, until I found what I was looking for—baby girl, Shell. Mother, Pamela Shell. The information verified the conclusions I’d arrived at earlier. I held the list out to Dave and pointed at the line. “She must have been going from gang to gang, trying to find the information on who abducted her daughter.”
Charles peered over Dave’s shoulder. “Something we missed?”
I shook my head. “You didn’t miss it, but we did. The alleged hooker Kyle was living with was killed also. We thought they killed her because of Kyle. I’m beginning to think it was the other way around, and Kyle was killed because of her.”
“Jesus.” Dave rubbed the bandage on his head and grimaced. “Darn thing is itching. Looks like Pamela stole the lists, and Kyle was helping her.”
It was a good theory, but a lot of things didn’t add up.
Melanie placed an arm around my shoulders. “Why don’t we sit down with a bowl of beef stew and some homemade corn bread? We can talk while we eat, and you can fill us in on your day.”
The stew was delicious, and Dave finished three bowls while Charles, Melanie, and I barely touched ours. I filled them in on the drug raids and the information we’d gathered from Lenglases. “I know the two of you want to help, but these people are vicious, and they’re not leaving any witnesses.”
A look of pure love passed between Charles and Melanie, and he reached for her hand and held it. “Simon was bullied, picked on, and made fun of because of his looks and his intelligence. He never told us about it, but until he met Kyle, we would hear him crying in his room late at night. After he met Kyle, his life changed. He had a friend. He smiled more, laughed more, and there weren’t any tears at night. I know you blame Kyle for Simon’s drug problems, but if it wasn’t for Kyle, Simon would have ended his life at an early age. You can’t love your children only when they make you proud. You have to love them all the time. They were turning their lives around. We didn’t know Simon was back on drugs until he died in the rehab center.”
Charles met my gaze, and the compassion in his eyes brought up tears as he continued. “I asked Kyle once why he fought Simon’s battles for him. He said it was the honorable thing to do. If Melanie and I die trying to find out who killed them or finishing what they started, so be it. We owe it to Kyle and Simon.”
Mist clouded my eyes, and I felt like a real jerk for keeping the truth from them. They didn’t know why Simon had taken his own life. Even worse, they thought Simon was back on drugs. My whole focus had been on who’d killed Kyle and proving my parents were involved. The Wilsons’ focus was on finishing what Kyle and Simon had started—finding the missing children. “There’s something I need to tell you, and I need your help.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
It was tough to look the Wilsons in the eye. Their gaze was trusting, and I didn’t deserve their trust. “Simon wasn’t back on drugs. I didn’t know that when we found him. We had him taken to the center because he’d overdosed after Kyle’s murder. I think that was his first attempt at suicide. He knew they would find him eventually, and the information he had was too important to him. He’d rather die than give it up.” I stopped to swipe at the tears running down my face.
“Take your time, Kacy.” Charles passed me a Kleenex.
I dried my eyes and blew my nose. “Kyle has a daughter. Simon was desperate to tell me that before he died. Her name is Yoshe.” I gathered enough courage to glance at Dave. I’d told him Kyle had a daughter, but I didn’t tell him her name. “I’m sorry, Dave. I thought the fewer people who knew about Yoshe, the safer she would be. I don’t think anyone is safe from these people.”
Melanie was crying softly in Charles’s arms.
“You should be proud of your son. I know I am, and I told him that.”
“Thank you for telling us.” Charles kissed the top of his wife’s head. “It means more to us than you’ll ever know.”
Melanie grabbed a Kleenex and dried her eyes. “Tell us what we can do to help.”
Dave had been quiet throughout the entire conversation. “Didn’t Lenglases say Kyle lost a shipment he was supposed to deliver in Tokyo? Could be where he met the mother.”
I’d been wrong about Kyle, and I would have to live with that. “One of the pictures of the women in the files Kyle and Simon put together was a young woman named Yoshekita Saito. I think she may be Yoshe’s mother.” I took a sip of water to wash away the bitter taste in my mouth. “I don’t think Kyle lost the shipment; I think he used it to buy her freedom. Then he went to the loan sharks to borrow the money to pay Lenglases back. That’s when he found out about the slave trade and missing children.”
“And that’s when he and Simon cleaned up their drug problems.” Charles smiled at his wife. “Don’t we have some fresh coffee and apple pie with ice cream?”
“We do.” She rose. “And we have a lot of planning ahead of us. Help me clean the table.”
We spent the next hour going over the best way to proceed. Lenglases had also mentioned loan sharking. People in those types of businesses always looked for the best way to make a buck.
“We hit the top three drug dealers today. We should hit a few loan sharks tomorrow. Seize their books, shut them down for a while, and tighten the screws,” Dave said.
“Good idea, Dave, but I doubt Park would have time to organize teams tonight, and I only know one loan shark involved in this case.”
Charles refilled our coffee cups. “Melanie can get you a few names in minutes.” He laughed softly. “Simon used to call her the ‘Machine Ghost’. She can hack into any system out there without leaving a trace.”
“You two have some unusual talents.” I took a bite of pie. “I think Dave and I need to get home before people get suspicious.”
“You’re right. We’ll leave i
t until we get back from Tokyo. I booked a flight for early morning. Melanie is making copies for you, then bagging up all the information we have so far. There’s a floor safe in the basement it would take an army to find and break into. Remember Simon, and you won’t have any trouble finding it or opening it. We’ll get in touch when we return. Simon’s funeral is set for a week from today.”
Funeral. “There’s one other thing you could do for me. No family has been located for Pamela Shell. I don’t want her buried in a pauper’s grave. She deserves better. If Melanie could run a search on her, and there is no family, I’ll give you the money if you could arrange it. The ME has agreed to hold the body a few more days.”
Charles nodded. “We’ll take care of it, and don’t worry about money. I’ll let you know when it’s scheduled or when we find her family.”
Dave was still quiet as we made our way to the car, and I was beginning to wonder if his head was bothering him more than he was letting on.
“How’s the head?”
He slipped into the passenger seat and fastened his seat belt. “Disturbing.”
“Should I take you to the hospital? Damn it, Dave, you’re supposed to tell me if it’s bothering you.”
“Not that kind of disturbing. I’ve been sitting here all night, watching those two and wondering how Simon could be their child.”
I started the car and pulled on to the highway. “You never know what’s inside a package until you open it. Simon had me fooled too. I think Kyle may have been the only person who saw who Simon really was.”
“Figured out what to tell Stevens yet?”
“Let’s see what he tells us about Crimson, and if we don’t like it, then we’ll tell him we have a snitch we’re meeting tomorrow who has information on what the killers were looking for. We can tell him the guy is jittery and if anyone but the two of us shows up for the meeting, he’ll run. We’re damn good at spotting tails.”
“And if somebody tails us?”
“We’ll take them to a nice quiet place and beat the hell of them until they tell us what we want to know. Or if you don’t like that plan, we could take Stevens with us. Tell him where we’re going after we’re on the road. If he suddenly has to use the bathroom or tries to make a phone call, we’ll know.” Then we’ll take him to a quiet place and beat the hell out of him.
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